sinking feeling.

An uneasy sense, often arriving suddenly, that something is going wrong or will end badly.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• have a sinking feeling
• a sinking feeling in the stomach
• get a sinking feeling

On the page

She had a sinking feeling when the engine went quiet.

A sinking feeling replaced his confidence as he counted the missing life jackets.

I got a sinking feeling that I had sent the warning to the wrong address.

Usage notes

Primary category: fear. Conversational embodied anticipation; can concern an ordinary mistake rather than danger. Does not imply supernatural foresight or prove a bad outcome. Usually a sinking feeling; feelings is the ordinary plural when separate episodes are counted.